HORSE LEAPING 



315 



would most probably incur no rebuke from the art critics 

 for blurring all the spokes of the wheels, and drawing all the 

 legs and feet of the animal sharp. And yet those of us who 

 know anything of the laws of motion, must be aware that, 

 in such a case, any one of the horse's feet which is going 

 forward, must be passing far faster through space, than the 

 more or less perpendicular spokes which are revolving 

 through the lower half of their circle ^ The blurred appear- 

 ance of the near fore foot of the horse in Fig. 406, shows that 

 that foot was rapidly going forward at the moment the 

 photograph was taken The fact of the horse pulling his 



«u •'->• ^&4£2hC< 



Fig 407. — Napoleon's Charger, Marengo {After Mr. James Ward, R.A.) 



rider out of the saddle, gives the idea of movement, which 

 Fig. 309 fails to convey. 



At paces in which there is a moment of suspension, the 

 idea of motion, will, as a rule, be best conveyed by drawing 

 the horse with his feet off the ground. On account of vio- 

 lating this principle, old time painters, who represented the 

 horse in the gallop with both hind feet on the ground, failed 

 to give the idea of movement ; although, as it happened, the 

 attitude they adopted was not far from true (Fig. 136) 

 The later method of showing the racer at full speed, sus- 

 pended in the air, with his fore legs stretched out in front and 

 his hind limbs extended to the rear, was absolutely incorrect, 



